“I am willing; be cleansed.” Mark 1: 43

Today I’m struggling with the common cold. I call it common because it seems that all my grandchildren share it in common and want to share it with me as well. It is one of those inclusive moments where all life is held in common and the blessings are shared. At this point I think the blessing of the common cold is over-rated. Being sick is not fun and usually when I hear that my children or grandchildren are sick I go into “quarantine mode” to try to escape the virulent strains of bacteria they seem to cultivate like petri dishes. Their germs are harder to avoid than one might imagine. So, I find myself trying to recover from some sort of head cold and it’s taking longer than I’d prefer.

I was reading the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark in which a man who has leprosy says to Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean”, approaches Jesus. The text says that Jesus, without hesitation, reached out and said, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Leprosy was considered to make one religiously and socially “unclean”. It required of the one with the disease that they announce their presence so others could avoid contact. I’ve tried to get my grandchildren when they are sick to do something similar when they come to visit, but it hasn’t worked yet. Faced with a disease that had not only physical, but also social and religious implications, Jesus still reached out his hand and touched the man. Whereas polite society and the religious leaders of the day might have been prone to keep their distance, Jesus steps fully into the place of disease and confronts it with His holy love. It is the blessing of the incarnation that the most holy God enters the antithesis of His own holiness and touches it with His love and restoring power.

Faced with the fearlessness of Jesus I am only too aware of my own fears regarding contact with those who might be diseased socially, emotionally or spiritually, as well as physically. I’m afraid of infection, of somehow being exposed to whatever the brokenness is. But Jesus is not afraid of being infected by the profanity and disease of the world. Instead, He comes to infect the world with His own powerful love and holiness. The state of this world in all of its brokenness is no match for the almighty and merciful God. He has stepped right in the middle of it and is here still reaching out with His hand to touch each of us in our own places of sin, disease and brokenness. May you experience today the Lord’s incarnation personally reaching out to you this day and may you be infected with His love and holiness. For it is this perfect love and holiness that overcomes and transforms all that is broken and profane among us. Here is a song that hopefully encourages you to experience Jesus on your journey.